Food Lust People Love: Zucchini and Bacon Pangrattato

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Zucchini and Bacon Pangrattato

Buttery golden zucchini with bacon pangrattato is a great combination of tender and crunchy making this dish one of our favorite sides. I have been known, in fact, to make a meal of it!

During the summer, when the zucchini abounds in our local honesty boxes and farm stands, I am always on the lookout for new ways to prepare it. While searching, I came across a Nigel Slater recipe online that sounded interesting. For the record, I love Nigel Slater and, in my book, he can do no wrong.

HOWEVER, in the instance of this recipe, Nigel was clearly, ahem, mistaken. He called the breadcrumb topping gremolata! You and I both know that gremolata is an Italian condiment consisting of chopped parsley mixed with lemon zest and garlic. And it would be very tasty sprinkled on some zucchini but what Nigel actually made was a pangrattato! Because breadcrumbs.

Potaytoe, potahtoe. Still delicious.

Zucchini with Bacon Pangrattato

I use the very handy real bacon crumbles I buy in Costco for this dish but it’s never crispy enough, hence the extra frying step. If your bacon is already cooked extra crispy, you can skip that. Just put the bacon and butter in the pan and add the rosemary and garlic right away. This recipe is adapted from the one I found online (link above) but it is originally from Nigel’s 2013 book, Eat, The Little Book of Fast Food.

Ingredients

1/3 cup or 40g crumbled cooked bacon

2-3 tablespoons butter, divided

1 short sprig rosemary

1 clove garlic

Several sprigs parsley

About 1 oz or 28g day-old bread

zest small lemon

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

3 medium zucchini, approximate weight 340g

Method

Slice some day-old bread thinly.

I like to use baguettes because they get pretty hard the same day I buy them. This pangrattato is the perfect way to use a stale baguette up that might otherwise be thrown away.

Cut the slices up in to smaller bits and pulse them in a food processor to make breadcrumbs.

Pull the leaves off of the rosemary and parsley sprigs and mince them and the garlic finely. Zest the lemon.

In a large skillet, fry the bacon with one tablespoon of butter, until it gets crispy.

Add the minced rosemary and garlic.

Stir for a minute or two then add the fresh breadcrumbs.

Add more butter if the crumbs look dry. Let these cook until golden, turning them regularly, then toss in the minced parsley and the lemon zest.

Season generously with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. When all is crisp and golden, remove from the pan and wipe it with a paper towel.

Trim the ends off of the zucchini and then cut them in half lengthwise. Cut each half in diagonal pieces.

Sauté them in the skillet with a drizzle of olive oil and some butter until they are golden on all sides.

Season well with salt and pepper.

Pile them in a serving bowl.

Top with a generous helping of the bacon pangrattato.

Store any leftover pangrattato in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Whew! That’s a wrap on our Alphabet Challenge for 2024! This is the 26th edition, brought to you by the letter Z. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the Z recipes below: